Street-sign



(No Model.)

Patented Oct. 11, 1892.

M. HOFHE'IMER.

' STREET SIGN;

AITOHNEYS,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MAURICE HOFHEIMER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE ELECTRICAL REFLECTOR COMPANY, OF NEW JERSEY.

STREET-SIGN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 484,097,01ated October 11, 1892.

Application filed January 22, 1892. Serial No. 418,880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, MAURICE HOFHEIMER, a resident of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Street-Signs, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in street-signs; and it consists, essentially, in placing between two to upright or substantially-upright sign-boards a plate of translucent material-such as porcelainarranged so that a portion of the rays of light from an electric lamp or other source of light will be/transmitted directly through the 5 translucent plate and through one sign-board, while the other portion of the rays of light will be reflected by the plate through the other sign-board.

It consists, also, of the combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective View of two of my improved signs as used in connection with an electric-are lamp; Fig. 2,

a plan View of the two signs; Fig. 3, a front elevation sectioned on the line 3 3, Fig. 2. Figs. 4 and 5 are cross-sections of two forms of my improved sign on an enlarged scale.

, In the drawings, A E are two substantially- 0 upright sign-boards placed and supported in suitable framing a a. Each of these signboards has either the lettering or the back ground made wholly or in part translucent or transparent, so that when light strikes the board the lettering thereon may be conveniently read.

B is a plate of translucent and reflecting mate rial-such as porcelain, opal-glass, or the like--suitably supported in the framing a between the two sign-boards A E. This 40 translucent and reflecting plate B may be placed parallel to either or both sign-boards A E or inclined at any angle, as in Fig. 5, its correct position depending upon the location of the source of light which is to illuminate the signs.

In operation the rays of light falling through the open space between the platesA B E upon one surface of the plate B (see Figs. 4 and 5) are partially transmitted through said plate to the sign E and partly reflected by the plate B toward the sign A. Hence both signs A and E are illuminated by means of the interposed plate B, the sign A by transmission and the sign E by reflection.

It is obvious that I can attach in any suitable way one or more of my improved signs upon suitable post-s Dof electric-arc lights or analogous structures in which the source of light is above and to one side of the sign.

Having now described my invention, what I claim is r The combination of the signboards A E with the translucent and reflector plate B, placed between them,all arranged to admit light to the open space between said boards A E and plate 13, so that the rays of light will serve to illuminate one of said signs by reflected and the other by transmitted light simultaneously, substantially as described. MAURICE HOFHEIMER.

\Vitnesses;

HENRY E. EVERDING, JAMES L. SUYDAM. 

